


Home

by jadedace



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Drabble, Fluff, Home, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-14 00:37:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5723011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadedace/pseuds/jadedace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The First Order was never big on "personal possession" or the like, and as a consequence, Finn doesn't really have a concept of "mine" or "ours".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home

The First Order had never been big on such trifles as “privacy” or “personal space” or “personhood”, and as such Finn had grown up without every grasping the concept of “mine”. Stormtroopers slept on nothing but rows and rows of open bunks in the barracks. They ate protein packs in a mess hall that doubled as a training room. They showered in communal ‘freshers. To do everything out in the open, and among a throng of his fellow stormtroopers, was The Way Of Things. 

Which is why, when Poe actually showed him to His Quarters, Finn was knocked speechless. 

“This is all mine?” He crossed the threshold into one-room apartment. Against one wall there was a kitchenette, a row of storage shelves built into the durasteel wall, and a decently sized holoscreen. Against the other was a sleep couch, complete with a mattress that was nearly as thick as three First Order standard-issue sleep mats. A small ‘fresher was tucked into the far corner. But what really stole his breath was the window, centered in the wall above the bed, offering an unobstructed view of the lake near the base. 

Poe cleared his throat. “It’s not much, but it’ll feel like home soon enough, and—“

“Not much?” Finn was incredulous. He peered into the ‘fresher, a grin splitting his face. “I have my own shower!” But he froze, as another thought hit him. “I’m not putting someone out, am I? This can’t all be mine.”

The pilot tilted his head, his lips splitting into a grin. “Nope, buddy. This is all yours.” 

Finn laughed, falling back on the bed as he relished in his new abode.“Home,” he murmured to himself, and smiled.

 

* * *

 

The funny thing about growing up in an environment without privacy was how accustomed you became to noise, and the presence of other beings nearby, and you didn’t even notice the noise or the company until they were gone. 

Finn tossed and turned that whole first night, growling in frustration when sleep didn’t come. The silence pressed uncomfortably against his ears, and the empty room felt _wrong_. Eventually, well after D’Qar’s moon had set over the lake, Finn put an old holomovie on the screen in his room. The noise did little to ease his discomfort, and there was still something disconcerting about being alone. For the first time in Finn’s life, he was just that: truly, utterly _alone_. 

He sat on the luxurious mattress, rubbing his bare arms in the ghostly light cast by the screen, before deciding sleep was not going to happen anytime soon—at least, not in the room. His room. With an irritated grunt, he threw on Poe’s old (and recently repaired) flight jacket, and went for a walk. 

The base was quiet, but not abandoned, at this late hour. His tired feet carried him to the main hangar, where the workers of delta shift were repairing one of the large bay doors. The distant sound of chatter and working spanners was almost a comfort. Despite himself, Finn felt his lids go heavy. He dropped down onto a cargo bin at the back of the hangar, resting his back on the duracrete wall. Really, he _was_ tired, and his still-healing body ached with exhaustion. Maybe he could sit down for just a few minutes…

The next thing he knew he was being shaken (gently) awake. His eyes flew open to see the concerned face of Poe Dameron staring down at him. The pilot wore his standard-issue flight suit, hair mussed from the black helmet he carried in one arm. Right, right. He’d been on patrol tonight. 

“What are you doing out here, Finn?” he asked. The former stormtrooper looked away awkwardly as he got to his feet. D’Qar was still dark outside the open hangar. 

“Oh, nothing. I just, uh, fell asleep on the job, is all,” he lied quickly. And terribly. Poe raised an eyebrow. 

“Since when are you assigned to delta shift?” 

Finn sighed and rubbed his neck. “Truthfully, I couldn’t sleep. The room was too quiet, and I’ve never really…slept…alone…” His voice trailed off, and winced despite himself, wondering what that sounded like to someone who wasn’t a stormtrooper.

Poe studied him for a moment before putting a hand on his shoulder and steering him out of the hangar. “Alright. Then you don’t have to sleep alone.”

Finn blinked. “What?” 

The pilot smiled. “I’ve got an extra mattress in my room. You can take my bed for the night.”

“I can’t kick you out of your bed—“

“And you’re not. I’m kicking myself out. Besides, I wouldn’t sleep much anyway knowing you’d probably go fall asleep behind the cargo bins again.”

There was no arguing with Poe this time (there was never arguing with Poe, actually; when he said things they had a way of happening regardless). Despite Finn’s protestations, Poe refused to let Finn sleep on the floor. So there he was, curled up in the bed of a man he’d only known for a few months while the pilot snored peacefully beside him. It was the best sleep Finn had had in a long time.

 

* * *

 

After the first night, Finn only ever occasionally returned to his own quarters. He tried to sleep there once, feeling bad about putting Poe out of his own bed, but the next morning he’d showed up to beta shift almost too tired to function from lack of sleep. From then on Poe insisted, and Finn obliged (though he insisted on taking the mattress on the floor).

Slowly but surely more of Finn’s few belongings found their way onto Poe’s shelves, into his drawers. But to Finn, it was all still “Poe’s”. He, who had never had “attachment” or “possession” in his life, who had just grasped the concept of “mine”, was very hesitant to say that anything was “their’s”. 

It wasn’t until Finn left D’Qar on his first mission that he realized how much he missed the small room he shared with the pilot. For the duration of the mission (acting as ground protection for medical supplies the Resistance desperately needed), all Finn could think about was sleeping in someplace familiar again.

By the time the ground team concluded their mission after three weeks of careful movements, the stormtrooper was more than ready to fall into bed and sleep for a month. It was late at night when their transport finally landed. After a quick debrief (none of which Finn absorbed), he shambled zombie-like back to Poe’s quarters. 

Half-asleep already, he dropped onto the first bed he saw, only realizing it wasn’t his _bed_ when Poe grunted in surprise beneath him.

Finn looked blearily from the pilot to his empty mattress on the floor. “Oops. Sorry, Poe, I’ll…I’ll move…” his words slurred with exhaustion as he moved to roll onto his bed, but Poe reached out and grabbed the stormtrooper’s shoulder. 

“There’s room for two. And besides,” he mumbled, quirking a tired smile. “It’s your room, too.”

An unfamiliar warmth bloomed in Finn’s chest at those words. Gingerly, he crawled over Poe to lie down in the space between the pilot and the wall. And for a moment he just lay there, eyes closed, listening to the gentle sound of Poe breathing beside him, basking in the heat of the other’s skin on his own. It was good to be home. 

 


End file.
